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Turnbuckles & Stogies Moonflower Main Event Crowned Heads & Jon Huber Return to the Ring! · Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk

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The station where our veterans voices are heard.
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MB R Talk. Hey, thanks for supporting our
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channel by watching and listening.
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Radio. Dot and why born and why built?
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Waters up yo Gorilla big dog. Yo-yo, yo, what is up?
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What is up? Happy Sunday, Happy fun day.
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We are here. Turnbuckles and stuff.
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Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday, whenever you guys see this.
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Yes, we are here with our special guest of the week, Mr.
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John Huber. Got it, nailed it.
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How was the boys? That was a hell of an intro man.
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That was really good. Thank you.
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That's our, that's our new intro our producer in Colorado
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created, I think he created what, November?
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Yeah. Who recorded the audio?
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Who, who? Who was doing the rap and
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everything He. Did that with AI.
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He wrote the lyrics. Oh my God.
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Really, he wrote the lyrics and he he put it in AI and he sent
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it to me and goes, listen, I created you guys a new song.
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I don't know if you're going to like it.
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I was like, OK, he goes, so should I send it to you?
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I'm like, absolutely. He sent it to me and I listened
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to it and I'm like, dude, I'm like, you got something here?
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That's crazy. AI is taking over the world,
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man. I hate, I love it, and I hate it
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at the same time to be. Honest, I know.
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It's. You know, like it's came up with
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some very cool logos for us to help like promote the shows and
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kind of like take both logos and mush them and mash them
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together. It kind of looks cool.
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And then there's stuff like that that I'm like, that's even
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cooler. And you get something like you
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said. Then you there's the downside of
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it and it's just like. Downside's killing everybody's
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creativity, it's killing jobs and stuff.
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Like that, but it is. The good news is AI will never
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be able to roll a cigar, so we there's a little job security
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there. That is true.
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I mean, you use AI. I've seen people create AI cigar
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bands. AI.
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Can spot it 1,000,000 miles away though for sure.
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You in fact, you can. Yeah, I can.
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I can totally tell. Have you, have you actually ran
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into that at all since? So the guy that I worked with
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on, on hat, on hat design, on the hat design front over the
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weekend sent me a bunch of like, hey, what do you think of this
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for hats? And it was like all these
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different, like 3 different layouts.
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And I, my immediate reaction, I texted him back, said somebody's
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been having fun with AI. And he wrote back ha ha ha lol.
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What do you think? And I'm like, you know, so you,
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you could take some elements of it and then flip he goes, we've
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been we meaning the the ad company have been using AI to
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design a couple of design ideas for people that don't know how
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to design on their own. I mean, I don't have that issue.
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I'd and I'd rather keep it authentic and design our own
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stuff. So I mean, but I could, I could
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tell as soon as I saw it, I was like, Oh, you've been having fun
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with AI, huh? Sometimes the AI designs, like
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you said, they're really nice. Then you get people that are
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just having too much fun and it's like, like you said, you
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can kind of tell right away and it's like, all right, if you
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toned it down a little bit, maybe you'd have something.
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But when you start going kind of like you said, extravagant AI
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and you're doing all kinds of different things, it's like,
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well, now you've gotten away from what we we've always had
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it. Yeah, it it'll, it'll settle
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down. People get their kicks out of it
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and they'll settle down and people will use it for certain
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portions of creation and then others that, you know, they'll
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take bits and pieces from it. But to just take something
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completely and say like, you know, hey, Gronk or whatever
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that app is, design A crown heads hat or design A crown
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heads band. No, and it's it doesn't look
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right. It doesn't come out right.
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So. Which you I've noticed you've
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come out with a lot of cool hats lately.
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You have the the moonflower one that you have on.
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Then you have the. I call it like the racing one,
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that yellow with the. The gold, the premium hat, it
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well started off as premium, but it's a riff off of the F1 podium
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hat and it says crowned on it. Yeah, yeah.
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I mean, we're constantly trying to come up with stuff.
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I mean, I'm not trying. I am usually I try to have like
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2-2 drops per month, brand new new designs.
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I got a bunch of stuff in the queue right now.
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Moonflower hats. We gave them out at the PCA show
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when we launched the brand and then we had half of the
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production here. I put it online for purchase and
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they sold out like in three hours.
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And now you can buy them on your website, right?
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No, not anymore. They sold.
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Out three, no. When they go up there, you can
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get them on on the website, right?
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Yeah, when the when the hats drop, which I announced all the
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drops on my Instagram when they dropped and then they're
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available until they're not available, so.
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Let's get to the elephant in the room.
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Here, sure. Why can't we?
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Find any moon flowers. Oh, I know everybody.
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Everybody. I went to order some because I'm
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like let me see if I can order some.
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Everybody says like back ordered or sold out and I'm like.
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I think, I think the online guys put back ordered because they're
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taking pre-orders. We haven't shipped any
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moonflower out. So there's no elephant in the
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room. It's just there's no.
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Moon, OK, no. So because that makes sense
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because I had, I'd read a comment on I think it was
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Neptune or somewhere yesterday and it said back order and
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somebody said, do you know when you're going to get some in or
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when you're going to have them whatever and when they'll be
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back in? And they had said early May.
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And I'm like, oh. Early May.
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Yeah, I, I was like, oh, OK. I'm like, and I looked, I'm
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like, well, we're towards the end now.
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I'm like, maybe they sold out. I'm like, maybe that's the whole
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I would I. Would think the same thing if I
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was you. I see the confusion.
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No we we when we dropped it, announced it whatever at PCA in
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the middle of April. The idea was the goal was to
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ship it in May and we had on our side we did.
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Met all our deadlines, checked all our boxes.
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On the Garcia side as well. At the factory level, there was
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a delay with the materials, meaning the rings, the shelf
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talkers. That set us back a little bit.
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And then now everything's packed and ready to go.
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We got the entire first production ready to ship.
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And I've been checking in with the Garcias every other day and
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their their hiccup, their snag now is customs clearance.
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They can't get their customs agency to sort this out so we
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can get it on, you know, on a plane and ship it.
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That said, hopefully they're even going to try to go to a
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different customs clearance agency down there.
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So let me. Ask you a question, John.
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So. You're.
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Putting a a distributor and a cigar roller and a cigar maker
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and all of that, how hard is it to get your cigars to go through
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customs? I don't deal with any of that.
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We have agencies that deal with it.
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So in Nicaragua they have an agency on their end.
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And then when we land here, we have another agency that we pay
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to clear it and then put it on a freight forwarder and get it
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over here. So I it's just, we just pay
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money for it. That's all a lot of money.
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So that's just, it's just another part of the of the
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machine that you got to keep going.
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So anyway, the Long story short, we have not received or shipped
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out any Moonflower and we're anticipating getting it out
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there, hopefully at least getting it shipped from
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Nicaragua sometime in the next week.
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Everybody's just on the holding powder waiting for this customs
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thing to to free up. On the other side of it.
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Baz family had a release called Americana coming out of their
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Honduras location. My father that left yesterday,
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they had no problems with Honduras.
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So that shipped and it should be in Nashville tomorrow and then
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we'll probably land here at our warehouse early to mid next
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week, which will probably depending upon what happens with
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the stuff come out of Nicaragua. We either start shipping that
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immediately or we'll just hold it and so we can ship everything
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all together. So and.
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It that's always like they get all the.
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Juggling act, man. So how did the how did the the
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the pre sale or or the release go at PCA for the?
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Brilliant. Fucking brilliant, man.
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It, it exceeded my expectations, honestly.
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Like you typically like to kind of frame it up.
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Like last year when we we dropped Broadway and the
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rebrand, we had ordered 500 boxes of each size of Broadway,
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3 sizes and we came close to selling them out.
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But I think we sold out maybe 8085% at the show this year.
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I just, I knew that Moonflower was going to hit, so we almost
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doubled it. We said, OK, let's pre-order 800
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boxes of each. We oversold the 800 boxes of
10:14
each. Wow.
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So yeah, so that's how good it went.
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Yeah, I know. Nuts.
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So you're doing, you're doing really good with the moonflower.
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It, well, it hasn't hit the shelves yet, but I mean.
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You know what people? Saw in smoke, yeah.
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What about your Tennessee whiskey?
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He means Tennessee Waltz and stuff like that with the rebrand
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with. The.
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Rebrand. There's not a single box of
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Waltz on the shelf or sold out. It's not a single box of Jericho
10:43
Hill on the shelf sold out. Not a single box of Lamb Periosa
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on the shelf sold out. Everything that we rebranded has
10:50
just been flying. Absolutely.
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Flying. Jericho Hill man bro we get
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those for like 8 bucks. Oh.
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That's the original runs. Those are freaking.
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The the original runs of the Jericho Hills the the all the
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box press with just a very small label as I call it.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was the before we rebranded
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it. It's the same blend.
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I mean, we haven't changed anything since we released it in
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2014. But now that we rebranded it,
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it's getting more eyes on the product, more encouraging trial.
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People are smoking, going Oh my God, what is this is so fucking
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good. Yeah, that's that's that's the
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poor man's pajama, what we called it.
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So let me ask you this question. So how does it like for the
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Jericho Hill? Let's take the Jericho Hill.
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Like you said, it's a poor man's pajama.
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That's what I nicknamed it. Right, which by the way, for the
11:49
price it's, it's probably one of the best cigars out there.
11:52
So for that to do that, how does it feel to know that you're
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selling out of all of this stuff?
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Like you can't even go in your shop and say I want to, I want
12:04
to Jericho help. It feels good and it feels bad
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at the same time because it feels good that people are, you
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know, connecting with the product, buying it, selling out
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feels bad because we can't keep up with the demand.
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And so that means people get impatient with their orders.
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We had some guy yesterday like where's my PCA order?
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Like, dude, I mean, we're doing everything we can to get it out
12:28
there. It's just it's this situation
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happens all the time in this industry.
12:33
If it's not material delays, it's custom delays, it's this
12:36
out of the other. The good news is it's.
12:39
Also out of your control too. And I think that's what a lot of
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a lot of retailers, you know, don't understand or they miss
12:45
the fact that it is, you know, when it comes to stuff like
12:48
that, that's stuff that you personally can't control. 100%,
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but you know they don't. Either they don't understand it
12:55
or they don't care to understand it.
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Like it's your problem, not mine.
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Where's my product? So it feels good and bad at the
13:01
same time. I mean, it's better than the
13:03
alternative of just having hundreds of boxes, something
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laying there, no orders coming in.
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But knock on wood, we haven't had to be.
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We haven't been faced with that for sure.
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Well, damn, bro, I got to say, John, we've known each other two
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years, if that three years. And every time Joey texted you
13:22
about something, you got back to him within 24 hours.
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And. Tried to.
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I tried to. I've been a bit bad about.
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It and I. Understand that box of 2025 Las
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Calaveras was fantastic. Yes, it was.
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It was great by smoked through that entire box.
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I appreciate that. That's the one I bought from
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that I caught on sale on the Atlantic.
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The five what the the robusto Gordo the 5 by 56. 56 Yeah.
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Oh, that was a. Phenomenal cigar.
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This is usually the time of year where we start to announce or at
13:55
least build up to the announcement of Las Calaveras.
13:58
But there will be no Las Calaveras this year, so we're
14:00
taking the year off. I mean, you, like you said, you,
14:04
you, you're doing the release of the moon flower.
14:07
You rebranded everything this year.
14:08
You did a lot in one year. You don't want to overload the
14:12
market. No, we don't.
14:15
Absolutely not. Plus it, Las Calaveras has
14:18
always been a monster for us. It's always been our number one
14:22
in terms of money makers. Las Calaveras is like huge.
14:27
Even though people see it as an LD, the production that we've
14:30
been doing would make a lot of smaller companies happy with an
14:34
annual production. We just happen to sell it out
14:36
like in, you know, 3 or 4 weeks, sometimes hours.
14:40
And I just felt like after 25, I'm like, man, I'm just kind of
14:43
burned out on the whole theme and I'm burned out on the idea.
14:46
And I don't want to bastardize it and just come up with a
14:48
different color band or whatever.
14:50
So I'm like, let's just let's put it on hold for the first
14:53
time since 2014, actually, because we've done it every
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year, including the pandemic year since 14.
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And this year, I said, now we're just, let's just let it breathe
15:01
for a minute before we kill the the goose.
15:04
That's a smart thing because some people like they just go
15:10
and rebrand stuff and things like that.
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Everybody's like, oh, I'm smoking this.
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I said, bro, I got like those in my collection.
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Like it's not nothing. It's the same cigar.
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Just a. Different wrapper.
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No, it's not OK it is. You're right.
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I will add to the the sentence, even though we're taking
15:29
Calaveras off, I did plan last year to reintroduce and re
15:33
release something that we did two years ago for our 10th
15:37
anniversary of Calaveras and it's called decimal, decimal
15:40
Anniversario, which was the original blend of the 2014.
15:45
We did that in a 25110 counts back in 2024 thing just ripped
15:50
it flew off the shelf. I say, all right, instead of
15:53
doing Calaveras, let's bring back the decimal blend, which is
15:57
the OG and we're going to do that in three different sizes.
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That'll be dropping probably like around July.
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OK, it won't be, it won't be the the levels of production that
16:07
Las Calaveras is instead of like you know 120,000 cigars, this
16:12
will be like closer to like 7072 thousand cigars, something like
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that. OK.
16:18
So. I mean, I, I heard great things
16:22
about that blend. I mean, I watched it fly off the
16:24
shelves. Yes, we did.
16:25
Most shops they got them in and they went right out the door.
16:28
Yeah, yeah, I had a lot of of feedback, especially from retail
16:33
to back. And it's like, hey, why don't
16:34
you do the decimal again? I'm like, I'm going to catch my
16:37
breath. And so, you know, then then I
16:39
started thinking after last year to take the year off of
16:41
Caliberis and let's plug in decimal in three different
16:43
sizes. So it's always something, man.
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Hey, you know what? At least you have the the
16:48
ability to plug and play. John, how does it feel?
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Know that you can decide what comes out, when it comes out,
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and how it comes. Out.
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I don't, I don't know any other way to do it.
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It is stressful. You're right, it's stressful.
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It's a lot of pressure, but no pressure, no diamonds, you know?
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So I've just kind of gotten used to it over the years because
17:14
that's always been whether we, when we started out with just
17:17
four kicks or like now I'm juggling shit all over the
17:21
place. It's just been the only way to
17:23
do it, my only way I know how, but I don't really get consumed
17:27
with the pressure. I just look at it like, OK, I'm,
17:29
I'm fortunate and blessed to be able to do this.
17:32
It's fun. I get to create and I work with
17:35
some really great factories. So don't bitch about it because
17:38
there's a lot of other people that would like to do what I do.
17:40
So tell us, and I'm sure we went through this the first time you
17:43
run, tell us how you got into starting your cigars.
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How I got into cigars in general, like what got me in the
17:54
business kind of a thing or just crown heads or what?
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Like however you want to put. I was a cigar geek man back in
18:02
the mid 90s. I just fell in love with cigars.
18:06
And I was at a turning point in my life where I just wanted to
18:08
do something that I loved instead of having to go to work
18:12
and hate what I do. And I had a lot of shitty jobs
18:15
at the time that I'd gone through, fell in love with
18:18
cigars and I was like, this is what I want to do.
18:20
How do I, how do I get in? There was no DMS. There was no
18:24
social media. It was like you had a phone and
18:27
write a letter. That was it kind of a thing.
18:30
And I got in the business that way.
18:31
That's what got me into it. And then I, I cut my teeth with
18:34
CAOCAO is where I worked from 96 to 2010.
18:39
I was like my undergrad degree. And then I was fortunate not to
18:43
have the opportunity to start ground heads.
18:46
That's a real condensed version. That's cool though.
18:50
I mean to come up with a name called Crown Heads and everybody
18:56
loves your cigars. Thank you.
18:59
Fucking amazing. Because me and Joey go to
19:02
different lounges throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania and all.
19:07
Over and if they don't carry a lot of your stuff, a lot of
19:09
your. Stuff, I said.
19:10
How come you don't? Have to normally well, so if
19:13
they don't carry a lot of the stuff they normally carry the
19:15
Juarez at the very. Least yeah, that's like the
19:18
value. Probably the Juarez, Yeah.
19:21
And I'm like, OK, well at least you have something I know I'm
19:24
going to enjoy. Juarez has been an interesting
19:29
case study because that that whole blend started off because
19:35
our distributor in Germany, I'm going back to like 2017 or
19:40
something, they wanted me to do an exclusive just for Germany.
19:44
So I, I kept sending them samples and they kept rejecting
19:47
them. I'm like, finally I'm like, what
19:48
the fuck is it that you want? And they're like, I want dark, I
19:51
want this, I want this, I want heavy.
19:52
I'm but OK, fine, I had that. I came up with that blend, sent
19:57
it to them. They're like, Nah, I'm like,
19:58
alright, fuck all you all. We're going to just keep this.
20:01
And you know, I've got it in my back pockets.
20:03
And then, you know, a month or two later, a business partner at
20:07
the time, my Condor says, Hey, I got a call from Thompson Cigar
20:11
Company that there's since been bought out by somebody.
20:14
I can't remember who it was. And they want you to do a
20:17
catalog exclusive. I said, OK, I got, I got the
20:19
perfect thing and it had that blend.
20:22
And so I came up with the branding of it and just that and
20:24
the other and gave it to them as an exclusive.
20:27
Well, six months went by and they didn't do shit with it.
20:29
They just sat on it and they're, I'm like, we're going to the
20:33
trade show. I think it was in 19/20/19
20:36
maybe. And Condor says, hey, is there
20:39
anything else we could take to the trade show?
20:40
You know, it would just have padded a little bit.
20:42
Like, look, why don't we fucking take Juarez and turn it loose
20:46
and see what happens? No sales sheet, no collateral.
20:50
Just open some boxes, hand out the cigars, tell people how much
20:53
it costs and take orders. OK, so that's what we did.
20:58
And we just said fuck it. We didn't have anything signed.
21:01
You guys sat on it in the warehouse for six months and
21:03
doing anything with it and it just took, it took off and that
21:07
was fucking what, 7 years ago. And it's, it's always been, you
21:12
know, it's always been a consistent seller, top four or
21:15
five brands, that kind of a thing.
21:16
So. Listen, Juarez is a great cigar.
21:20
I. Thank you.
21:22
And not because you're on here, but because it's cigar.
21:28
It's a poor man, and I hate to say it, it's a poor man's hot.
21:32
That's what it is. I can go to a cigar shop.
21:35
It's an. Everyday cigar.
21:36
It's an everyday if you'd like that kind.
21:39
Of I can, I can sit here and smoke.
21:42
Not only there you have to enjoy that kind of you have to enjoy
21:45
that kind of feel. You know that that fuller body
21:48
experience in order to really enjoy that Juarez for what it is
21:51
correct right and if. You, you can, you can take the
21:54
band off of those things and give it to somebody and they'd
21:57
be, like us, a nine to $12.00 cigar.
22:00
We. We kept it down like 7 so 7 to 9
22:03
so now. When you did that, how did
22:05
Thompson react to that? There, there was whatever
22:09
because there was no sign agreement.
22:10
We were just like, hey, you fucking had your run at it.
22:13
You didn't do anything with it. And then I think it just got
22:16
lost in the shuffle and then they got bought out by somebody.
22:19
I can't remember who it was. So it's all history now.
22:24
But now and then, since Juarez, we come out with another value
22:27
prop last year like in November called Thunderkiss.
22:31
Oh. My God, that was.
22:34
Great. And so Thunderkiss was like even
22:37
like I think a better value prop than Juarez.
22:40
I mean, it smokes great. And I think that's fantastic.
22:43
Yeah, and SRP on that's like 675.
22:46
Yeah, I bought, I bought that one bundle from Creekside.
22:50
I got halfway through it. I was almost done.
22:52
I placed an order for two more and I couldn't figure out why my
22:56
order wasn't shipping. I'm like, finally I messaged
22:59
them and I'm like, hey, you know, I placed an order.
23:02
I'm like, it still says that a label was created.
23:06
And I'm like, I don't know if it got lost, whatever.
23:08
And, and the guys over there were very helpful.
23:11
They're like, listen, we don't even have it.
23:13
It shouldn't have even been, you know, been able to be sold to
23:16
you. He was like, I don't know when
23:18
we're getting it back in, he's like, but he, but he refunded
23:22
me. He took care of me.
23:23
He's like, when it comes back, I'll send you an e-mail.
23:26
This way you can replace your order.
23:28
Their their customer service is absolutely.
23:32
I love working with those guys. And I noticed you just did a
23:36
release of the the Broadway with them as well.
23:39
Yeah, we did an exclusive size really, that was inspired by
23:44
their Discord. They have a Discord group.
23:46
And when Dave Ember was down here on one of his visits, he
23:49
said, hey, I want you to join our Discord.
23:51
And I'm like, I didn't know what Discord was.
23:53
I've no idea. I joined it and I interacted a
23:56
little bit. And then one day, God, I don't
23:59
even remember when it was those months ago, somebody said, hey,
24:02
we love Broadway. We want it in the Corona.
24:06
And as easy as that was, I just started texting David.
24:09
I said, you want to do this? And he's like, yeah, let's do
24:11
it. Let's get some samples and let's
24:12
do it. And so we went back and forth,
24:15
said OK, 5 by 44, let's do a close foot.
24:18
Da da da da da got the samples. I said, and I said, Are you
24:21
ready for your disc corona? I kind of nicknamed it because
24:24
it came from Discord and it was a corona.
24:25
So I said disc corona and that's what came out Phenomenal pro.
24:30
It's just like. Unbelievable.
24:32
That's next on my list. I'm like, I got to order that.
24:34
I got to reorder the Thunder Kiss, I said.
24:36
Because I'm completely out. I've been out since that pack
24:38
was gone. I you know, the disc are on.
24:42
It was so good like I, it all went to Creekside and they I
24:46
think they the original production was 350 bundles and
24:50
last time I talked to Dave they sold 320 already and that was
24:54
like in the first few days. So I don't even know if they
24:56
have any left. But I said damn, I missed that
24:58
cigar. So he ended up sending me 3
25:00
bundles and pretty much smoked through all of them.
25:04
I'm just keeping one for the archives but I didn't even get a
25:07
chance to smoke it. It just it flew and that was a
25:10
fun project and has a really freaking.
25:12
Good. So that's something they're
25:13
going to be carrying all the time.
25:15
Or was that just kind of like a A1 off limited?
25:18
I've left the door open to him. I said, look, this would be your
25:22
size, your project, your whatever, in perpetuity.
25:24
Whenever you want to reorder, just say yes.
25:27
And so that's why he never marketed it as a limited
25:31
edition. He says otherwise it would have
25:33
sold out in like an hour. But he said it's just, you know,
25:36
this is the first run of it, so that's up to them when they
25:39
bring it back. I.
25:40
Think too, I feel like when it comes to stuff like that, you
25:42
know, I feel like it's, they don't, like you said, they don't
25:45
mark it as a limited edition because if it does sell and then
25:48
you decide to bring it back, those people that paid the
25:51
limited edition price would be like, Oh, well, I paid this and
25:55
now I now it's only this price and it was a limited run and I
25:58
bought 10 bundles and now I'm just going to sit on them
26:01
because you have, you know, then it becomes kind of a, a
26:04
customer. Oh, well, you know what?
26:06
I, I spent all this money and now they're bringing it back.
26:10
I could have just waited and this and that.
26:12
So it's, I mean, it's a good thing the doors open for it
26:16
because I, like you said, they sold 320 bundles in a matter of
26:21
weeks. Yeah, like days, actually.
26:24
Really. And the rest of them are just in
26:26
store right now. I don't even know if they have
26:27
it online yet or not or if it's still online.
26:30
But those guys I love working on Creekside are just a great group
26:33
of guys and their customer service is second to none.
26:36
But they're going back to the Thunder Kiss thing.
26:39
They're the reason why Thunder Kiss are a big reason why it
26:42
blew up because my whole plan, I've been working on Thunder
26:46
Kiss for most of 25. And then I had it in the office
26:51
like in October, November. And I told our VP of sales,
26:55
Magella said, look, we're just going to or I don't want to do a
26:57
press release. I don't want to make a big
26:59
splash. I just want to send samples of
27:02
this to the guys when they go to the store.
27:04
Let them smoke you with somebody.
27:06
No pressure. If you like it, here's the price
27:08
kind of a thing. That's going to be a very soft
27:10
organic launch. Well, Creekside boys were down
27:13
to shoot a podcast in our warehouse and Dave was snooping
27:17
around. He noticed he's like, oh man,
27:18
you got Thunder kissing? And I'm like, yeah, do you mind
27:20
if I talk about it on the pod? I'm like, no, go ahead.
27:24
By the time he left, he had, he had smoked it and he, he ordered
27:28
pre-ordered like 50 bundles and he said by the time he got back
27:31
to Ohio, they were sold out, ordered another 100.
27:34
Those were sold out. So it just kind of caught fire
27:38
because of that podcast and just those, you know, it couldn't a
27:43
bit worked out any better. My, my whole thing was like,
27:46
hey, this is a regular production thing we're doing for
27:48
everybody. It's open to everybody.
27:51
It's not a limited edition, it's just a value proposition for
27:54
people that want a really good cigar for less than 7 bucks.
27:59
And here it is. And we've done phenomenally
28:01
well. It's one of those, like the
28:02
Warriors, you can take the band off and people will tell you
28:05
that's a nine to $12.00 cigar. Because of the way it is.
28:09
That first day I got them, I opened it right.
28:11
I didn't even wait. Like I normally people are like,
28:13
oh, you got to wait 24 hours or you know, some people wait a
28:16
month. I'm like, no, I'm like, if, if
28:18
they're shipped properly with the proper humidification, I'm
28:21
like, you should be able to get that order go like this with a
28:25
knife if you have to, to open it and just start smoking.
28:29
I'm like, that's, that's how they're they're meant to be when
28:31
you get them. And your.
28:33
Cigars, Your cigars, when you send them to us, they're always,
28:38
always humidified. Right.
28:40
And no matter. And, you know, I think that too
28:42
is a testament to, you know, the places that ship them because
28:48
like I was on the phone with somebody the other day and we
28:51
were talking about some of the stuff that we're working on and
28:56
get it. We we did a deal with a broker
28:58
who's actually trying to help us get our own cigars out there.
29:02
He's kind of handling everything almost like a like a licensing
29:06
thing. He's collecting all the money.
29:07
We're just collecting, you know, the profits and fee off of it.
29:10
But you know, we were talking about the bring it back to kind
29:14
of the shipping process. Now everybody's like, why is it
29:17
so high? I said because, you know, I got
29:19
to pay for the bags they're shipping to properly ship the
29:22
proper humidification so that when you get them, you can open
29:26
that bag, pull that cigar out and start smoking.
29:29
Right. You know, I'm like pay for the
29:30
proper shipping boxes. I'm like, you know, and, and I'm
29:33
not doing any of this. I said this guy has his own
29:36
shipping system. He's got his own everything, I
29:40
said. So, you know, they're like,
29:41
yeah, and I and I understood like the price was high.
29:43
I kind of knew that going into it.
29:46
I said it's the way he does it is.
29:48
That's the only reason it's a little higher, I said.
29:50
And ironically, the factory they're coming out of is the
29:55
Pichardo factory. All right, Hon.
29:58
So. He he's got a relationship with
29:59
those guys. I validate that 100.
30:02
Percent. He's like, you heard of them?
30:03
And I'm like, the name sounds familiar.
30:05
And then he goes, they made stuff with crown heads.
30:07
I'm like. Oh.
30:09
OK, because it it, you know, you hear all these different
30:11
factories and I'm like, I know the name.
30:13
I can't place it. That's who he had done his
30:16
cigars with. Well, the problem with
30:20
Pichardo's, he's changed names so many times.
30:23
Like when I'm sending a a press release that involves him to
30:26
half wheel, it's like Charlie will always text him back like
30:29
OK, what's the name? This week it's become a running
30:32
joke because they went from like Pichardo's cigars to Takaniksa
30:37
to there was another name in the mix and they went back to
30:40
Takanitsa, then they went back to Pichardo's cigar.
30:43
It was just like, there's no continuity to it.
30:45
But Aradio Pichardo is the gentleman that runs that
30:48
factory, and he's a Cuban expatriate.
30:51
He's fantastic blender, great guy.
30:53
They make, they make Mil Dias, Mil Dias, Maduro Juarez, Thunder
30:58
Kiss. Am I leaving anything out?
31:01
No. Yeah.
31:02
Those are the brands that we make with them.
31:04
They so he had wanted us. The guy was like, well, we can
31:07
do your own brand. I'm like, well, listen, here's
31:09
the thing. And I I was like, I laid
31:11
everything out. I'm like if I'm going to white
31:13
label a project, I said I want to taste it before I do it.
31:16
Of course. You know, I said, because I've
31:18
seen people that have white labeled.
31:20
I said, and I get the cigars because they want us to try
31:22
them. I'm like, and they're a dog
31:26
rocket. I'd rather throw out the window.
31:29
So I was like, I don't mind doing it, but I want to test
31:31
them. And then we tested a Habano and
31:33
a Maduro and I'm like, and they were robusto and Toro sized.
31:36
And I'm like, yeah, that's kind of what we want to do.
31:39
You know, we, we smoked the cigars that the guy did and then
31:41
he sent the samples of I think it was along the lines of
31:45
something he like the ones he had sent us, but just tweaked a
31:49
little bit. And I was like, we smoked and
31:51
we're like, all right, for the first release, that's what we're
31:53
going to do. Whatever.
31:54
But the pricing, because the pricing is higher, it's not.
32:00
It's we have like feelers, but people are not really, you know,
32:06
biting. And I'm like, it is what it is.
32:07
And the guy's like, how's it going?
32:08
I'm like, listen, nothing yet, but that's OK.
32:10
I said, we don't let it bother us.
32:12
We just pull it back, go back to the drawing board and figure
32:16
something else out. Well, you know, making it,
32:19
making the cigar is one thing and there's the next level is
32:22
like, how do you get people to try the cigar?
32:24
Because if the, if the product's good, the product will speak for
32:27
itself. But you got to encourage
32:28
sampling, you got to encourage trial.
32:30
How do you stand out in the shelf?
32:31
And there's a, a myriad of things.
32:33
It's like people think, oh, you just come up with a blend, throw
32:35
a band on it and you're going to make $1,000,000.
32:38
And it's, it's not that easy. There's a lot of different
32:41
layers to the business. Making a great cigar is just one
32:45
component really, but I I can tell you that whatever you, you
32:51
validate with a radio, you're going to get it consistently.
32:54
He's his consistency, his quality control is fantastic.
32:57
Like I said, those are the brands.
32:59
We also make blood medicine with him.
33:01
Belgian Blue. I mean, he's been a joy of.
33:04
Working Blue is is very good as well.
33:06
I actually had the opportunity to smoke that.
33:07
The other one that was good. I think somebody had given it to
33:11
me. No, you know when I got it in
33:13
one of those. No, I got it in one of those.
33:17
I think it was one of those Secret Santa's or something.
33:20
Somebody had sent it to me. The one that I I really enjoyed
33:23
that I actually had gotten my hands on quite a bit was the LA
33:27
Crema. That Quran, we discontinued
33:30
that. Yeah, that was, I had the, I
33:33
think it was the Toro size. That was a great smoke.
33:37
What was that? I'm sorry you guys, I had to
33:39
look at something real quick. Why did you discontinue that?
33:41
Because that particular cigar made at Casa Carrillo, we
33:46
historically had peaks and valleys getting the proper
33:48
Connecticut broad leaf wrappers for that cigar through Ernesto
33:52
Perez Korea. Like he would like literally one
33:55
year he'd be like, OK, you, you can't have any broad leaf.
33:58
I'm like what? OK, so now all of a sudden we're
34:00
like on backwater for that product.
34:03
So it was, it was never a consistent supply on the broad
34:05
leaf. And then the prices were going
34:06
crazy and we already had what? So Broadway is broad Leaf, Waltz
34:14
is broadleaf, Melodias Maduro is broadleaf.
34:19
I didn't need 4 broadleaf cigars in the portfolio.
34:22
So one had to go. And that was the, IT was a hard
34:25
decision, but not that hard because that was the one that we
34:28
had the the most issues getting on a consistent basis.
34:33
That's understandable. Why have 5 broadleafs you don't?
34:37
Need exactly, exactly. So yeah.
34:42
So let's take a quick little commercial break.
34:46
And we'll be right back and then?
34:47
We'll come back. Yo, what is up?
39:04
What is up? We are back.
39:05
I am the big dog that is the vanilla gorilla.
39:07
We are here with John you, but you got to excuse him.
39:10
He's a very, very busy. Man, and we appreciate the time
39:13
he took out of his day to. Stick with us, my pleasure.
39:17
So, John, let's kick into the moonflower.
39:20
Go ahead, bud. Now I know the Moonflower, you
39:23
did your videos on Instagram talking about the different
39:25
sizes for everybody that didn't see what are the different sizes
39:29
and if you can disclose what's the blend and kind of, you know,
39:34
how did you come up with it? Sizes.
39:38
There's a Corona Gorda 6 by 4646 is my favorite Ringgade, so I
39:42
had to put it in there and Smoke's my favorite of the of
39:45
the three, the Robusto's a 552 and then Toro's a 654.
39:51
Not my favorite, but it's our number one selling SKU across
39:54
the board, so I had to put it in there.
39:57
The blend is it's a Corolla wrapper from Nicaragua, the
40:02
binders double binder also from Nicaragua.
40:05
There's a halapa and esta Lee on the binder and then the filler
40:09
is all Nicaraguan as well. You got halapa, esta Lee and
40:12
Kondaga. So since you're looking at 100%
40:15
Nicaraguan poodle. The blend is a riff off of a
40:19
cigar we did with the Garcias back in 2015.
40:22
Sixteen Carlos Marias, which I thought at the time was one of
40:26
the best things we'd ever put out.
40:27
And for whatever reason it didn't get traction.
40:30
So we discontinued it pretty quickly.
40:33
But there was a cult following from Marias.
40:35
I kept seeing and getting messages bring back Marias, so I
40:39
started that with the jumping off one of the blend.
40:41
We modded it a little bit to make it a little bit sweeter,
40:44
richer, less sharp. And that's moonflower, man.
40:48
That's, that's it. And so the, that's the blend
40:51
inspiration and the, the tolas, the brand inspiration.
40:55
Moonflower is something that I, it's kind of like an homage to
40:58
my wife because when I first started dating her back in 2010,
41:03
she was gardening and she had these things called moonflowers.
41:05
And I've never seen what a moonflower was until I'm better.
41:08
And she explained to me, it's a night bloom, meaning it only
41:11
opens. The flower opens up at night,
41:13
and then it folds back. Yeah, folds back during the day.
41:16
And then I started researching it more.
41:18
And I learned that it's kind of become a symbol for, like,
41:21
overcoming dark times and challenging times.
41:24
And anyway, along the years, it became something that was
41:27
important to our relationship. And then about, I think, four
41:29
years ago, I had two moon flowers tattooed on my hand, one
41:33
for one for me. So it's always meant something
41:35
special to me. And so when I needed a brand
41:39
inspo for this blend, I was like, hey, I'm going to call it
41:43
Moonflower. I think this is pretty cool.
41:45
So that's where I came from. The how did you come up with the
41:50
colors for it? Because I know usually the the
41:52
colors have something to do with with the blending or the
41:55
branding. How do you, because so how did
41:57
you come up with that, that light blue and dark blue kind of
42:00
color band? So I've been working for like 2
42:04
years now with a gentleman in the Dominican.
42:06
His name is Juan Carlos Quandier.
42:08
He's the one that I worked with on the rebrand.
42:10
He's the one I worked with on Broadway.
42:13
And so that what we've done together, we've worked a lot, a
42:17
lot of hours together. So now what we do is I'll come
42:19
up to him and I'll say, OK, here's my, here's what we're
42:23
going to do, here's the brand inspiration, here's the mood
42:25
board. And I sent some pictures of
42:27
moonflowers. I sent them all of these things
42:29
about moonflowers. I sent some of the the the
42:32
blend, all of that. And he's the one that come back,
42:35
came back with that colorway and that scheme and that the bands
42:39
are just like phenomenal. They're something you really
42:42
need to see in person. Like everything I put on social
42:44
media is one thing, but when you see it in person and you kind of
42:48
rotate the cigar and it's just like, Oh my God, this is.
42:50
Gorgeous. Almost like a forward to having
42:52
it in my hand with the band because I've even told you
42:54
through Instagram the band color is.
42:57
Yeah, it really pops. It really does.
43:00
It's beautiful. In fact, this was the first
43:03
time, I think ever the Rye Dog who prints the bands in Holland
43:07
that they use the materials called God, was it a rhodium or
43:11
something like that? And that's what took so long,
43:14
because they kept, they didn't know if it was going to work.
43:17
And then they kept doing trial after trial with it to make it.
43:20
And then it came out phenomenally well.
43:23
And so when you see the band, it's like you look closely and
43:26
it's almost like a holographic image of the moon flowers behind
43:29
the logo and everything. It's pretty cool.
43:32
It's I couldn't have been happier with how it turned out.
43:35
We were already working on 27 now.
43:38
So I, I, I left PCA last month and I got the project that I
43:44
wanted, the blend that I wanted green lighted with the Garcias.
43:47
And then I right away went right back to Juan Carlos.
43:50
I said, OK, I got 27, I'm going to send you the mood board.
43:54
I'm going to send you the information, I'm going to send
43:55
you what I see and everything. And so we're already we're about
44:00
50% of the way. No, that's that's good.
44:04
Yeah, you have to. How?
44:08
How is it a a gentleman like you sits there and goes, Hey, I
44:16
think I want to make this, but I need a test.
44:20
How, how, how does that work? Like, I don't understand, Like I
44:23
understand how to test the cigars, but like, how do you
44:26
come up with like all of this stuff in your head?
44:33
I don't know, he says. I mean, I'll just, I'll wake up
44:37
and just have an idea and I'll, I'll try.
44:39
It just kind of comes to me, man, to be honest with you, like
44:41
I had, it could be simple stupid stuff.
44:44
Like yesterday I had, I pulled up a mock up of a hat that I'm
44:49
working on and one of my reps was right over my shoulder and
44:53
he's like, Oh my God, I love that.
44:55
My yeah, it's pretty cool, right?
44:57
He's like, yeah, I said it literally came to me two nights
44:59
ago at like 3:00 in the morning. I woke up and go, oh, that
45:02
works. And then I sent the idea the
45:04
next morning to my designer and sent me the layout.
45:07
So it just, it just comes like, you know, I don't know.
45:13
And, and you know, there's too, like you said, also, not only
45:17
with your stuff, having the, like you said, the hat people,
45:20
the band people, you know, I think the having the proper
45:24
cigar factory as well that like you said, if you haven't blended
45:28
like 3:00 in the morning, you can even just shoot him a text
45:30
like, hey, here's what I'm thinking.
45:33
Can you make me something? And, and I think that's a
45:35
testament to your relationship with the factory, but also with
45:39
the the rollers and blenders as well that they're able to take,
45:42
you know, either notes or, you know, a wrapper or kind of all
45:47
the different things you're looking for and make that into
45:49
what essentially you're testing and eventually becomes the final
45:52
product. And not only that, so let me ask
45:54
you this, how often do you go to Nicaragua and Dr. and all of
46:00
that? I don't, not anymore.
46:03
I mean, before, before COVID hit early on in in in the formation
46:08
of crown heads, I was going down there probably four or five
46:11
times a year. And then about five years ago,
46:17
my father-in-law had a massive stroke and literally just
46:22
changed our life. My wife and I, we live about 8
46:24
miles from them. So we became the primary
46:27
caregivers for him and her mother.
46:29
And to this day, my wife is the primary caregiver really for
46:33
them. And so a lot of her time and
46:36
energy is pulled off to manage that household.
46:39
So, you know, for the first two years, I cancelled all my
46:42
travel. I didn't do anything.
46:44
I didn't go to the sales meeting.
46:46
I didn't go to the factories. I didn't.
46:48
So now I, I just, I'm at a point where I can, I don't need to go
46:54
to the factory. I know what I'm doing.
46:56
I don't need to be there to, to micromanage a blend.
47:00
I can just say, OK, hey, look, send me this and then let's try
47:05
it and then I'll get it and then, you know, I'll be like,
47:07
you know what, it's a little sharp.
47:08
Let's let's swap off a leaf for of halapa for this or whatever,
47:12
you know, and I mean, that's how Broadway came about.
47:15
Like I had Le Petitia already as a regular production brand and I
47:18
wanted it a little stronger. I said, let's change one leaf.
47:21
I mean, I know enough, you know, I know enough of the the
47:24
ingredients in the cabinet that I know it's going to taste.
47:27
So I don't, you know, people that say, oh, you got to be down
47:30
on the fact. Yeah, I, I'm not 100% sure about
47:33
that. You know, I don't think those
47:36
guys are great at what they do. I don't think they need you
47:38
peeking over the shoulder. Well, that's like any.
47:40
Better. Just like even they say with
47:42
Jonathan Drew, he don't smoke cigars.
47:45
Jonathan's been on on Instagram posting up him smoking his
47:48
cigar. When you when you.
47:49
And things like that. And I laughed because they say
47:52
he, I said he does smoke. But after a while, you got to
47:56
take a break, because again, you.
48:01
Know just by by the nature of my lifestyle, I don't smoke on the
48:05
weekends because I'm home when I'm home, I try to shut all this
48:08
off. I don't go on Instagram
48:10
constantly. I don't work on works and you
48:12
know, there's exceptions, but for the most part, when I'm
48:15
home, especially on the weekends, I'm like, I want to be
48:18
with my wife, my wife, my daughter and just kind of focus
48:20
on that so I don't smoke. So it's a good little kind of
48:24
pause button. Then I come back on Monday and
48:26
I'm back to the four to five cigars a day testing blends,
48:29
testing, you know, I, everything I get is like, this is what I,
48:33
this is my homework here. You know, I got bundle after
48:36
bundle after blend after blend and.
48:38
I mean, feel free to send something to me, I'll test and.
48:41
Let you know that I. Appreciate that.
48:44
I never put that on anybody because everybody says the same
48:47
thing, but I I like it to be like, if it succeeds, great.
48:50
If it fails, it's on board. I don't want anybody else taking
48:52
the. Following.
48:53
You don't. You don't want that that
48:54
judgement of something that may not be where you want it yet.
48:57
Yeah, I mean, I'm gonna know you.
48:59
You do this long enough, you know, it's like, you know, if
49:02
you work in the music business long enough, you hear a single,
49:04
you know, you don't, you don't need to know how to play guitar
49:08
and work a sound board. You can just you, you hear it
49:11
and you know, so, yeah, I don't go down to the factory as much.
49:14
I would love to go down to the factory.
49:16
I mean, that's the one part I've had a sacrifice that I really
49:20
miss about the business because when I was going down there,
49:22
those are my my best memories of the industry is going down there
49:26
and just being with the people and just going to the farms and
49:29
things like that. I miss that.
49:31
I've had to sacrifice it to support my wife and you know,
49:35
her challenges. And that's, that's just
49:38
something I've had to like, like like I don't, I don't miss doing
49:41
the in stores and all that, but I do miss going to the factory.
49:45
Speaking of going down there, so like we've been trying to put my
49:49
cigars out for like 5 years, six years my wife got sick, she was
49:54
on life support and everything else and I had to cut everything
49:57
off. Like I cut everything.
49:59
I I didn't do a a damn thing. On it.
50:01
Well, I will I will say with the cigars though, kind of helped us
50:04
because like when we first started doing it, I was only
50:07
looking at we were working with a a guy over here that has his
50:11
own rollers. I think he owns his own factory,
50:14
if I remember it correctly, and I was only looking at 60 ring
50:18
gauge cigars like a Barber pole 60 ring and a Maduro 60 ring and
50:24
I was handing them out to people.
50:25
I'm like, yo see, let me know what you think.
50:26
Whatever. He had robustos and then I think
50:29
kind of, you know, like he was saying the playoff of that with
50:33
my mom getting sick and having to put everything on hold for,
50:37
you know, that 3-4 years, whatever it was, it kind of gave
50:41
us time to really sit back and smoke, you know, the different
50:45
sizes and try different blends from different people and, and
50:48
really, you know, hone in on what we're looking for.
50:52
And again, kind of learn from people like you, like Rick, like
50:58
Matt Booth and people like that to see what actually sells.
51:01
Right. You know, because I learned over
51:04
this time that in a lot of markets are universally really,
51:08
you know, Robusto and Toros are kind of the number one sellers,
51:11
correct? Probably more so the Toro.
51:16
You know, one thing is like what you enjoy the smoke and what
51:20
sells sometimes don't line up. You know, I mean, like, for
51:25
instance, like I know that 60 ring gauges actually sell.
51:29
I don't enjoy them. So I ethically and with any kind
51:34
of integrity, I can't get behind a 60 because just because it's
51:38
going to sell what I like to smoke is usually between the 42
51:41
and 48 ring gauge. And initially that's I focused
51:45
pretty heavy in that lane. And then you realize, OK, that's
51:48
that's not you me. I got to like, I got to feed the
51:53
beast. I got to take care of these
51:54
people. I got to pay this salary.
51:56
That salary needs health benefits all.
51:58
That's why you there's a compromise.
52:00
So that's why I like the toros in the portfolio for me now,
52:03
even though it's not one of my favorite sizes.
52:05
But what I what I like to smoke and what sells in the
52:09
marketplace are two different things, to be perfectly honest.
52:12
I mean, the blends, I do all the blends based on what I like.
52:16
And if everybody else likes it, great.
52:18
But the sizes are a little bit, you know.
52:21
Now is, is that why you have the corona size or the 44 ring gauge
52:26
in the in the moon flowers because that's what you blended?
52:29
I, no, I usually blended in 50 to 52.
52:33
It's depending on the factory. Usually when I get test blends,
52:38
it's either going to be in a, a straight Robusta 550 or a 652.
52:43
Those are the 2 sizes that I kind of play with.
52:45
And then we kind of go up and down from there, right?
52:48
But personally for me, if I could smoke one size in
52:52
perpetuity, it would be 55, eights, 46.
52:54
And initially, like everything that we did coming out of Crown
52:57
has had a 55, eights, 46 or something close to it coming out
53:01
of there. Over the years, we kind of
53:03
stepped off of that a little bit because it was always the the
53:07
loss leader and we needed sizes that sold and so on, whatever.
53:12
But with Moonflower, I'm like, I, this is just too good not to
53:15
put in the portfolio. So I did a 646.
53:18
I mean, it's kind of like selfish for me to do that, but I
53:21
think that when people smoke it, they're.
53:23
Like, wow, this is fucking great, right?
53:25
And and you know, like we said, you, you, you tried it in the
53:27
robusto and the Toro blending it and then being able to add that,
53:31
you know, 6 by 46 or the five and 5/8 by 46.
53:35
Now you know, you made something that you like to smoke size
53:39
wise, but you're also giving, like you said, a different size
53:43
to the portfolio for that cigar that you know, like you said,
53:46
you kind of laid off of for a little while.
53:49
Right, 100%. And, and I think again, you
53:52
know, and, and it's funny because I just had this
53:53
conversation with a smoke shop yesterday.
53:56
This guy, the kid that took over is trying.
53:58
It's a, it's a regular smoke shop.
54:00
They sell vapes, everything. They have cigars.
54:03
But the kid that works there is actually willing to learn about
54:05
cigars. He's very like I I went to go
54:09
buy cigars yesterday, John. I think I talked to the guy for
54:12
an hour and a half. That's the kind of guy you want
54:16
that's. The kind of working sizes and
54:18
you know, like he's like, well, you know, I noticed that this
54:21
size doesn't sell. And that's when I kind of said
54:23
to him like, listen, you know, universally from what I've
54:25
learned doing what I've done and stuff like that, I said, your
54:28
bustos and your toros are going to be your big seller.
54:32
I said, you're you're going to have your Gordo smokers, you're
54:34
going to have your 70 ring gauges.
54:35
I said, but you know, he's like, I'm thinking of getting
54:38
Lanceros. And I said, that's another one
54:40
that's kind of coming. It's coming slowly.
54:43
It's taking its time. I think it's the most popular
54:47
size. It doesn't sell.
54:48
I know. And it's great, which is crazy
54:50
because again, like you said, it goes back to that smaller ring
54:53
gauge. Yeah.
54:55
And a. Different thing like for I, I
54:58
we've done that serves as L ES off and on.
55:00
Throughout years, 44 kicks had a lot of those too.
55:03
Yeah. And it was just kind of like the
55:04
demand was there, but I haven't done one in a while just because
55:09
it's just like I said, it's the most popular size that nobody
55:11
buys. If you do it as Nellie and so
55:15
one and done, people will probably buy it.
55:17
If you add it to a, a, a production, regular production
55:21
brand, it'll sit there. It'll just sit there and sit
55:24
there. You know, it's, it's a shame
55:26
because when you get to a size like that, and I again, this is
55:30
what I learned through not only through COVID, but you know,
55:33
talking to people like you and, and all these other company
55:37
owners Blenders is, you know, that Lancero is where you're
55:41
really going to get a lot of that flavor profile from the
55:45
cigars because of the smaller ring gauge.
55:48
It's not that much tobacco you're really getting, you know?
55:52
Getting most from the rapper, really.
55:54
You really can't play that much with the filler and a 38 to 40
55:57
ring gauge, right? You're getting most of it from
55:59
the rapper, so it's just a different ratio.
56:02
But the problem I've always had personal Lanceros is I just
56:05
don't have the patience to sit there and babysit them.
56:07
And you really, you have to pay attention to that cigar and
56:10
you're constantly touching it up and you could be relighting it.
56:13
It's just it's a commitment. And I just it's not something
56:16
that I typically enjoy. But I mean, there's some people
56:21
that I think some people like, like to say they smoke land
56:23
ceros because it makes them look like some elitist the fist, you
56:27
know, like I smoke land ceros, you know, and I'm like, oh, OK,
56:30
that's great. Give me a fucking Corona.
56:32
Exactly. You know what I'm like?
56:35
We are winding down here, my friend.
56:38
I don't want to tie you up no more.
56:39
I appreciate you coming on. Yes.
56:42
Appreciate you guys as well. Shout out to you coming on my
56:45
brother and. My pleasure anytime.
56:48
Moon flower shells because I need to get my hands.
56:51
On once they eventually hit stores, I'm going to try to get
56:53
as many as I possibly can get my hands on.
56:56
Man, I would send you guys pre release samples.
56:58
I it's funny because people were hitting me up on social before
57:01
we went to the show and said hey, can you give me a sample?
57:03
I'm going to try it. I'm like, I would normally be
57:06
jumping at the chance for you to try it.
57:07
I'll bring back samples from the show.
57:10
We took 1000 robustos to the show, came back with 0.
57:15
So I don't even have a moonflower to smoke.
57:17
I'm waiting patiently like everybody else in America.
57:21
I mean, that's a good thing to have though.
57:22
Appreciate you. I guess thank you guys.
57:24
I. Appreciate it, always a
57:25
pleasure. Thank you Have.
57:26
A good. Day we can't thank you enough,
57:28
Sir. You as well.
57:29
Cheers, guys. Have a great weekend.
57:31
Cheers. All right.
57:34
And you have a guys. And and just so you know, also
57:38
shirts sponsored by 4 Johns apparel.
57:43
This is your your rapper shirt, your Connecticut, Habano, Corojo
57:46
Maduro and Cameroon. Which Corojo is what the
57:51
moonflowers wrapped in Mine says.
57:53
We're still smoking. Cigars.
57:54
Yours says together we smoke cigars.
57:57
They have other shirt. They had a shirt with sizes on
58:00
it. There was a misprint,
58:01
miscommunication. It's OK.
58:03
I'm sure that'll be going back up also.
58:06
Go check them out. Pretty soon you will probably
58:08
see a shop for turnbuckles and stogies merchandise.
58:12
I got a design I think is going to be perfect for them that, you
58:16
know that I know. Oh, it's raining outside, guys.
58:19
That's awesome. But yeah, I, I want to thank
58:25
John for coming on. It was a blast.
58:27
I had a lot of fun. He always, always, always is
58:31
great to talk to. And this week, why not this?
58:33
Week. Yeah, Rick Rodriguez.
58:36
Yep. So by the time you guys see
58:37
this, we probably would have already had Rick Rodriguez on
58:40
because this probably won't drop till another week or so.
58:43
Sounds good. Just stay tuned to the to the
58:45
interwebs. Yes, interwebs for the GET.
58:50
On your phones. For the, you know, release
58:52
times, I'll set a premiere date for you guys so you guys can
58:55
watch it. But as always, John's a great
58:58
interview. As you see, we're not smoking
59:01
the moonflower. He's not even smoking the
59:03
moonflower because he's got none, which is a good problem to
59:07
have. It is, but it sucks.
59:09
It just sucks that it's taking so long through customs.
59:11
And again, that's when you're dealing with cigars and, and
59:17
countries like Nicaragua and and stuff like that.
59:20
And you know, out of anything coming from out of the country
59:23
cigar wise is that's a problem that you tend to run into.
59:27
And I think that's where it's a lost art of not a lost art, but
59:31
lost on some of the retailers and consumers of like, why is
59:34
this not out? It said it was going to be out.
59:36
Listen, that stuff out of the manufacturer's control, that
59:42
stuff out of the brand owners control, that's unfortunately
59:46
they pay an agency to do that. And you can't blame the
59:49
manufacturer, nor can you blame the company that's making the,
59:55
the brand that owns the blend, whatever you want to call it.
59:57
You can't blame them because at the end of the day, they're not
1:00:01
there physically doing it themselves.
1:00:03
And that's, I think what a lot of people tend to forget
1:00:06
sometimes. I agree, you know, and, and
1:00:09
again, it's always a pleasure to have John on.
1:00:12
You know, we always, we got to film them during the day because
1:00:14
you heard it here. On the weekends, he turns it
1:00:17
off. He doesn't smoke.
1:00:18
He's with his family. And again, that's what we do
1:00:22
here too. You only see us on Sunday for
1:00:26
the show, and then you don't see us after that until Monday,
1:00:29
Monday night, you know, sometimes Tuesday, you don't
1:00:33
even see us on the weekends really.
1:00:35
We're kind of out and about or we're sitting at home spending
1:00:38
time with the family, you know, winding down from the work week,
1:00:42
whatever one biatch is. So just.
1:00:45
Saying. Also coming up after that, after
1:00:52
Rick, we would have had probably Exile and Quesada on and mid
1:00:57
June is the big interview that I was able to land.
1:01:01
We got DuPont, we got less man from St.
1:01:06
DuPont Lighters, which is the one I'm using now and has been
1:01:09
my go to letter since I've gotten it and we.
1:01:11
Got what's his name coming? On I said yeah quesada we got
1:01:14
drunk chicken we got La Vega cigars we're booking into July
1:01:20
we're. Booking into July, Anybody wants
1:01:22
to jump on well. One date is already taken in
1:01:24
July. Send.
1:01:25
US Adm. So, but listen, guys, we
1:01:29
appreciate you taking the time out of your day to smoke a cigar
1:01:33
and spend a little time with us and Mr. John Huber.
1:01:37
Remember, get your crown heads, smoke crown heads because you
1:01:41
ain't going to be disappointed. Watch turnbuckles and stogies.
1:01:45
Go to 4 John's apparel. Get your merchandise.
1:01:48
They make cigar merchandise. They make cigar smokers
1:01:54
merchandise for the average guy or something like that.
1:01:58
Go pick up your turnbuckles and stogies merch, which will be
1:02:01
debuting there pretty soon. Yeah.
1:02:03
Listen guys, thank you for tuning in.
1:02:06
We're grateful for all you guys watching.
1:02:08
As always, reviews and stuff will be coming soon to the
1:02:12
channel. You'll be seeing a lot of new
1:02:14
stuff. You'll be seeing a lot of new
1:02:17
quality camera footage I'm working on getting.
1:02:20
So again, guys, listen. It's been it's been fun, it's
1:02:23
been real or not. It's been another episode of
1:02:28
Turnbuckles and Stovies Podcast and we will see you all on the
1:02:33
next one. Peace.
1:02:37
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for tuning in to Military
1:02:42
Broadcast Radio. As we wrap up today's show, we
1:02:46
want to remind you that the podcast of today's episode will
1:02:50
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1:02:53
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